Practical
by Aerin Blair
Summary: Lily Evans was always a very practical person. LE/JP, JP/SB, LE/SS. Some slash.


**Practical**

LE/JP, LE/SS, JP/SB. A little bit of slash, nothing too traumatizing. Technically a 'Snape is Harry's Father' story, but meant it to be more about how Lily would feel in this situation.  
Maybe to be continued?

* * *

Lily Evans was a very practical person.  
She had always been the one who saw what needed to be done, and did it, without complaint. She was the one who found the solution to Petunia's childhood temper tantrums: slap her. Hard.  
Since she was only seven at the time, nobody faulted her.  
When she came to Hogwarts, she quickly saw that the only way to gain acceptance here would be to be as hard as those who detested her. By the end of her first year, she had beat out almost all the other students in grades, and assured herself a reputation as a 'cold bitch' among more than a few quarters. Anyone who tried to slight her quickly found themselves on the end of a few of the more creative curses she favored.  
But she was only one person.  
One night she was jumped by several Slytherin upperclassmen.  
Practical as always, she cast a few healing charms and found her way back to the dorms, contemplating revenge and wincing at some of the more unfortunate bruises. 'Mudblood' was still cursed across the back of her robes - she wasn't sure how to remove it.  
As she entered the common rooms, she found Potter. James Potter, and his friends. It took only a few moments and some tears to gain herself fast defenders - and the entire Slytherin male population spent a week being hexed red and gold.  
Yes, she was very practical. When James began hinting at more in her fourth year, she went along with it. He was polite and chivalrous with her. He kissed her like he was afraid to break her, and never tried to push it further. They were the romantic, perfect Gryffindor couple that the school saw them as. She was madly in love, and he always answered, "I love you too," when she said so.  
In her sixth year, she found herself sometimes with a strange sense of impatience with the parchment spread out on the desk in front of her in the waning hours of the night. She began to wander the halls at night, stealing from shadow to shadow. Sometimes she followed James and his friends down the hallways for a while after they'd left. Sometimes she just walked.  
It was halfway through her seventh year that she found him, one night, pressing Sirius Black against a wall. The invisibility cloak had slipped and hung from one shoulder, leaving them only partway visible, but she could see that Sirius' hands were busy at James' pants. James' mouth found his and she saw them kiss fiercely, bodies molded to each other.  
She melted away and walked back to the dorms. She cried for hours.  
But she said nothing, not the next morning when everyone asked her why her eyes were red. Not when she saw them touch each other for longer than was needed, hands lingering when Sirius gave James a quill, Jame's arm resting casually across his shoulders after slapping him on the back. Not even a week later when she heard them walking out of the common room, invisibility cloak barely covering both their ankles, light laughter audible.  
She sat in front of the fire and pretended not to hear. After they left, she stared into the light till her eyes burned and thought of how to hurt him the most.  
Two months later, she went walking during the night again.  
She found Severus Snape in the library, as she expected, curled up in a chair, reading by the light of the moon.  
He flinched as she appeared and stood, obviously expecting curses or threats. She was, after all, the girlfriend of the boy who hated him most, who had spent his days humiliating him. She was the friend she had chosen to ignore in favor of her Gryffindor protectors. She stepped closer to him and saw his dark eyes change, his body shiver slightly. She had made a good choice, she thought, as he opened his mouth to ask why she was here.  
Then she pushed him against the wall and kissed him, hard.  
He came quickly and shuddered in her arms, the last moan echoing in the silent room. She felt tears slipping down his cheeks as she rested her face next to his; she wondered if it was because this was his first time or because of her. They dressed silently and he didn't meet her eyes.  
She obliviated him afterwards, put a sleeping charm on him, and walking back to the common room, felt her plans of humiliating James slip away.  
She returned to James as if nothing had happened, and within a week, he had proposed, as was proper. She accepted, as was proper, and they were married within two first night they spent together was awkward, painful, and unpleasant. After he was finished he rolled to the other side of the bed and fell asleep promptly.  
She found out she was pregnant a week after.  
After Harry was born, she covered most of the resemblance with Glamours. Later, as he developed his shocking green eyes (his only resemblance to her), she reinforced the work with a potion, tying the Glamour to a modified Polyjuice, using James as the source. It would last years, without interference.  
She never told him. Even though she knew that the nights Sirius visited, and she went to bed early, the pauses in the low noises from the downstairs parlor weren't for lack of conversation. Despite the tears she wiped away, silently, on the nights he spent at Sirius'. Till two in the morning, coming back smelling of Firewhisky and sex. He never mentioned it, even though she thought he knew. She was afraid to break the fragile peace they had, so she was silent in return.  
Then, one night, Halloween, the world exploded into green light and chaos, and she never got the chance.


End file.
